Poultry Lice 101: Everything You Need To Know
Poultry Lice, aka Menoponidae, is a species of small, wingless, external bird parasites. They are about the size of a grain of rice and straw colored. They are the bane of every chicken keeper’s existence, including mine. Like many poultry pests, they are acquired easily and are difficult to get rid of. So today, I’m going to discuss some of my experience with Poultry Lice, how we got rid of them, some alternative treatment options, and what you can do to prevent an infestation in the first place.
My flock has had lice twice and it took weeks before we wised up to the proper treatment and got rid of them effectively. I’m not sure how my flock got them the first time, perhaps they had them all along and it simply took that long to notice them, or perhaps I just didn’t have the proper biosecurity. I only noticed the infestation because my Ayam Cemani hen had an odd collection of white bulbs or dust on the underside of her chin. I later found out that they were nits, or lice eggs. If I hadn’t noticed those, who knows how long the lice infestation would have flourished in and hurt my flock? The second time, I was a little bit more wise. We had picked out and planned on introducing four new hens to our established flock. We didn’t have the time or the means to quarantine the new hens, and we inspected them only after bringing them home. Right before I set them loose with the flock, I flipped them over and inspected their vents for lice. Lo and behold, all four were infested. We immediately set out to treat them and the flock as a whole, and soon they and the rest of my birds were lice free. Admittedly, I ignored most of the advice I’m about to give you in this article and because of it, I endangered my flock and opened them up to receive pests. Thus, my best advice to you is to not ignore the warnings. Be smart, and don’t put your chickens’ health in danger.
The first and most important thing to know with lice is how to identify them. While various varieties exist that live in different parts of the chickens’ bodies, the most common areas for them to be are on the vent or underside of the body near the keel, and under the wings. In order to properly inspect your chickens for mites and lice, flip them upside down (being careful not to hold them by their legs. It is also important to check for signs of seizure or choking because certain breeds do not handle being upside down very well) and locate their vent. Once located, push the feathers aside so that you can visually inspect the skin and the base of the feathers near the vent. In my experience, the lice are usually on the underside of the vent closer to the belly. Signs include packets of white nits/eggs around the base of the feathers, patchy, dry, or unhealthy looking skin, and obviously live lice crawling around. It only takes one of these symptoms to confirm the presence of lice or another parasite, though I would be careful to make sure that the dry or patchy skin is not caused by something else. Other, indirect symptoms of lice or another parasitic infestation includes shedded feathers, decreased egg laying, increased dust bathing, and signs of stress.
Now that you’ve identified them, where do you go from here? Well, the first step is figuring out the source. The two main sources of lice are unclean living spaces and cross contamination from other birds. It’s important to figure out which one was the source because your treatment plan will differ greatly. If your source was from a new chicken that was recently introduced, then you will:
- Treat your birds
- Treat their living space
- Ensure that you practice better inspection and quarantine methods when introducing new birds in the future.
If your source was unclean living conditions, then things get a little more complicated. Now comes the time to reassess your cleaning methods: have you been cleaning as thoroughly and often as your chickens need? In general, a good gauge of when a coop and run needs to be clean depends on the manure and moisture levels. If you live in an area that is naturally very damp, that last part might be hard for the run, but it should still apply to the coop. Above all, when it comes to coop cleanliness, the goal is dryness. Your choice of litter, cleaning schedule, and cleaning method revolves around this. Generally, when things are no longer dry, it’s time to clean out the litter and replace it anew, unless you’re doing a deep litter method.
For me, that time usually means once a week (I do not use the deep litter method; for that reason I will refrain from discussing it in depth but if you’re interested, there are many blogs and tutorials out there that can get your started). I use pine shavings as bedding (I find it to be the best that I’ve tried; I just got lucky because it was also the first I tried. We have also tried straw but found it to be less absorbent than pine shavings) and a horse stall deodorizer (kind of similar to cat litter) to keep the coop relatively smell-free. Additionally, sometimes I will dust it with a permethrin powder which can help prevent parasites (but not eradicate them if already present) in the coop. My typical cleaning method involves taking out all of the perches and removable nesting boxes, scraping them down for poop, and then finally raking all of the chicken manure and soiled bedding into a bin to be disposed of later. Then, I put all of the parts I took out back in the coop, dust with permethrin (optional), lay down the deodorizer, and then finally add a nice layer of shavings. This ensures the coop stays clean and biohazard free for the rest of the week until I can clean it again. Note: when dusting with permethrin, make sure to have coop windows and doors open as much as possible, because it does create a large amount of dust that can negatively affect your chickens’ lungs, and because it takes a while to disperse. Lastly, I won’t go into detail here but please be aware of and make sure that you are disposing of the manure and soiled bedding properly! If you’re placing them somewhere in the run irresponsibly, that could be the source of the parasites! I compost mine in a different part of the yard.
Thus, with the guidelines above outlined, if you determine that the source of your infestation was living spaces, then your steps would be:
- Reassess and amend cleaning plans
- Treat birds
- Clean coop using amended plan and continue to use plan to ensure further parasite prevention
- Do research and further amend plan as needed
Lastly, I do need to mention the final reason your chickens could be getting lice: wild birds. While uncommon, if your coop is uncovered, is located where local birds roost or provides observed opportunities for interaction between chickens and wild birds, there’s a possibility that lice could have been communicated that way. While difficult, if you think that’s how your birds got lice and have eliminated all other possibilities, thereare some changes you could make, but they might be difficult. Putting up netting or covering your coop and run entirely can prevent disease communication from poop and birds that fly in; chasing away and putting up spikes/preventative measures against wild flocks is a sad but sometimes necessary measure against chicken and wild bird interactions; some combination of the two above methods, plus any others you find in research, is probably going to be your best bet to ensure the proper bio security and pest prevention. Once these actions have been taken, treat birds, coop, and run (and observe for further potential infestations) and you should be ok.
Now, let’s discuss prevention and treatment options, starting with what I use:
- Permethrin and Ivermectin: these are what I use for both prevention and treatment, and in both cases they work relatively similar. The permethrin I use is a ‘garden and poultry dust’ that has permethrin as it’s main ingredient. I find it over the counter at tractor supply in an easily dustable powder form. The Ivermectin I use is actually labeled as pour-on, or tropical solution, for cows, but it works just fine on chickens. If you would rather use one that is better tailored for chickens, there are ingestible and topical products engineered specifically for chickens. I simply find that the cow pour-on is more efficient for me and it works like a charm. In terms of application, I simply dust the coop and run with the permethrin powder (yes it is very white and dusty, but as long as your chickens aren’t breathing it, we like it that way because that means it’s working on any bugs in your enclosure). For the Ivermectin, I simply transfer it into a refillable spray bottle, catch my chickens, and spray it generously on their backs/base of their necks. If you’re using the topical cow pour on, it will probably dye their feathers blue as well for a couple days. When treating chickens for parasites, please keep in mind that you cannot just treat a few and leave the others un-treated. Even just one lightly infested hen that you missed will infest the others quicker than you think. Thus, it’s important to spray and treat all of your birds and anything else they come in contact with all at once so that parasites aren’t transferred and the treatment is ineffective. Lastly, please do your due research on at least the ivermectin before using because there are egg withdrawal times (the time where you shouldn’t eat the eggs because they could have chemicals in them) and dosages to consider. Currently as I write this, there isn’t much substantial research out about how long Ivermectin lingers in eggs, so please do your own research and if in doubt, it’s better to be safe than sorry and wait a little longer.
- Diatomaceous Earth: this is a non-chemical based, dust-like substance that is great for prevention. Emphasis on prevention because while it does help kill bugs, diatomaceous earth is not effective enough to eliminate a previously existing infestation. That being said, diatomaceous earth is a wonderful tool that I would recommend having on hand. As opposed to killing bugs by way of chemicals, like permethrin, diatomaceous earth is very small, microscopic, glass-like shards of sand that are inhaled by bugs and then shred their lungs, effectively killing them. It is small enough to do this to bugs but not humans or chickens. That being said, because chicken lungs are so sensitive, I wouldn’t act like they are impervious to it. Exercise caution as always. One of the best ways you can provide diotomaceous earth is through a dust bath spot. Chickens ‘bathe’ by rubbing rolling themselves in dust, sand, and dry dirt. If you have never seen it, it is quite a sight to see chickens kicking up a big cloud of dust in pursuit of covering themselves with it! Because we live in the desert and the run is made out of sand, we don’t have as large a need for a dedicated dust bath. That being said, if you live in an area with grass or not a lot of dirt, then it is probably prudent to provide a bowl full of dust big enough for your chickens to get into a roll around (and maybe include some diotomaceous earth!).
- Elector PSP: when it comes to parasite prevention, Elector PSP currently stands as the end-all, be-all. At the moment, there are no parasites with any resistance to it, and because of that it is extremely expensive. I have never used nor had need of Elector PSP because Ivermectin has worked just fine for me so far. However, if I have a very extreme infestation and Ivermectin isn’t working, then I view Elector PSP as a last resort trump card. It takes the form of a standard sprayable chemical topical. Additionally, it has no egg withdrawal period. However, do the benefits outweigh the almost $200 for 8 ounces cost? That is up to you to decide.
This article was written by one of my 4-H teenagers with direct knowledge of the subject matter (yeah). Nope, I don’t find much excitement in it, but I do love clean healthy chickens, which is what you’ll get if you apply the info from the article to a coop near you. Have fun, thanks for reading.